Miller continues to open and walk through all kinds of entertainment doors

Thursday

Nov 10, 2016 at 11:14 AMNov 10, 2016 at 11:14 AM

Ed Symkus More Content Now

At the age of 24, Ezra Miller has already achieved enough artistic accomplishment to be labeled a renaissance man. He got his first professional credit — singing in an opera company — when he was 8. Since then, he’s trained in acting and clowning, has appeared in riveting films including “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” and lighter fare including “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “Trainwreck,” and will be playing The Flash in next year’s “Justice League.” Miller also plays drums and keyboards, and sings and writes songs for the folk-pop-rock trio Sons of an Illustrious Father. In the new film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” with a script by J.K. Rowling, Miller is Credence Barebone, a mysterious fellow with a Moe haircut who can’t look other people in the eye, and could just as easily be a good guy or a bad guy. He spoke about the film and his career in New York.

Q: The story goes that you had a bad stutter as a kid, your kindergarten teacher suggested that you try singing to remedy it, and you ended up in an opera.

A: My memory is of finding, as we do when we’re children, a point of fixation, and I found it in opera. Of course, that was amongst other things. I was still really into playing with action figures, and I still am (laughs). But I also found a cure for my stutter. Two years later it was completely gone.

Q: That first one wasn’t exactly traditional opera. It was “White Raven” by Philip Glass.

A: Yeah, it was almost an epitomizing work of contemporary opera. We had Robert Wilson directing it, as well. So there was this psychedelic and bizarre reality that I was ushered into as a child. But I also worked in classical opera. I sang with the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus for a couple of seasons. I left when my voice changed.

Q: And you got into straightforward acting when you went to Buck’s Rock Summer Camp?

A: I was interested in acting from early on. I told my father when I was 7 or 8 that I wanted to be an actor or a singer. And he said, “Go ahead, it’s nice that you have knowledge of what you want to do at such a young age.” At Buck’s Rock there are facilities set up for almost every conceivable type of creative and performing art, and there are teachers in every department that help kids achieve their creative ambitions.

Q: And you went right for acting?

A: No, I spent the entire eight weeks there in the clown shop. The camp started as a socialist work camp in the 40s. The clown shop was at one time more traditional clowning, but it has evolved to be the place in the camp where improvisation and comedy are practiced. I was part of this incredible group of talented and funny kids. We started our own improv troop call Uncle Dad, and we would rehearse every week and perform in New York.

Q: Since you broke into movies with “Afterschool” in 2008, you’ve played all sorts of different roles. Credence Barebone in “Fantastic Beasts” is yet another one. Without giving too much away, could you introduce him?

A: Credence lives in a foster home where he was partially raised. Now, at the age of 18, he stills lives with his foster mother, Mary Lou Barebone (played by Samantha Morton), who is the head of the New Salem Puritanical Society. The interest of this society is to obliterate abnormality, as they perceive it, in the human race. And magic is a premier form of abnormality. The problem exists that Credence is abnormal, in ways we don’t quite understand. You learn pretty early in the film that he’s being abused, and he’s not being given any license to let the reality of his being surface.

Q: You’re a self-avowed Potter-head. In one sentence, what was it like to meet J.K. Rowling?

A: There was a rapid succession of nervous thoughts and jitters, and a lot of gratitude towards unknown entities.

Q: How have you managed to find time to tour and record with Sons of an Illustrious Father?

A: There’s always time for the band. They came to London while I was working on this film, and then again when I was doing “Justice League.” We’re recording our second album right now, and we will tour before I start my next film.

Q: OK, you brought up “Justice League.” I know you’re not supposed to talk about The Flash yet, but I’d like to resurrect an old question about him: Who would win in a race, The Flash or Superman?A: It is said that maybe once or twice, every so often, The Flash would LET Superman win. But, you know, The Flash is the fastest man alive. And even though Superman’s an alien, he looks enough like a man that we can say, “Hey, Superman. You have everything else. Give us this one thing.” (laughs)